I was asked to join the art committee at the Children's Inn. We had our first meeting yesterday. It was such a pleasure to tour the Inn and revisit artwork I haven't seen in many, many years. In 1990 I assisted Helen Orem in building their permanent collection - my favorite of which was a discovery alphabet, all original works of art donated by such wonderful artists as Margaret Kranking, Ray Ewing, Kevin MacDonald. The image above is a beautiful sculpture by Martha Tabor recently donated to the Inn. Below the Inn's mission statement...

The Children's Inn at NIH is a family-centered residence for pediatric outpatients at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and for their families. Its purposes are to keep children together with their families during serious illness, reduce their stress and facilitate their healing through mutual support. Since 1990 The Inn has been in continuous operation: 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Nearly 6,000 seriously ill children and their families have made almost 40,000 visits to The Inn. Children and families travel from around the world to NIH, because conventional treatments have failed to have sufficient impact on their illnesses. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, NIH is the premier biomedical research facility in the world. there web site here